The present invention relates generally to postal mail conveying or transporting systems, and more particularly to a new and improved postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system wherein originally random pieces of mail can be conveyed, sorted, and placed into a desirable delivery-walk or serial address sequence as a result of being conveyed or processed by means of only a single pass through the system.
In connection with conventional mail delivery systems, two types of mail units generally comprise the vast majority of mail pieces or articles to be delivered, namely, letter mail, and what is known in the industry as flat mail or flats, which, more particularly, comprise, for example, magazines, newspapers, large envelopes, and the like. In order to optimally control, or even more desirably, reduce, operational or systemic costs, world-class postal services require, and are therefore seeking, a low-cost, high-throughput, automated system for sorting their daily mail, which is to be delivered, in accordance with what is known as a delivery-walk sequence format, or more simply, in accordance with a delivery-sequence format. In accordance with the general or overall concept of such a sequence format system, all destination-addressed mail pieces, originally disposed in a random manner at a particular postal collection, accumulation or repository location or facility, and which, taken as a whole, therefore inherently comprise, define, or have, in effect, a random array of delivery addresses printed thereon, would be processed and sorted in accordance with a desirable order or sequence. More particularly, in accordance with such a desirable sequence or order, all original, randomly-arranged destination-addressed mail pieces would be sorted or arranged in a particular or specific predetermined order which would correspond with the order of destination addresses to which the postal mail carrier would make his or her mail deliveries along his or her delivery route on a daily basis.
Various letters and flats systems, somewhat similar to the aforenoted desirable system, have been developed in the past in an attempt to attain the desired systemic objectives, however, for various reasons, such conventional systems have not been completely satisfactory or viable, and therefore, such systems have not been commercially successful. For example, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has developed several different systems, such as, for example, a Carrier Sequence Bar Code Sorter (CSBCS) System, or a Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS) System, however, such systems are only capable of sorting and processing letter mail. While substantially one hundred percent (100%) of letter mail is currently provided with, for example, address bar codes in order to facilitate the implementation and operation of an automatic delivery sequence sorting system, currently, substantially all flat mail must still be manually sorted for integrated inclusion within a delivery sequence system. Obviously, additional economic benefits would be derived or achieved if an automatic delivery sequence sorting system was capable of implementing the processing or sorting of both letter mail and flat mail pieces, articles, units, or the like from an original random letter/flat mixed mail input.
Continuing further, an additional operational impediment of current automatic delivery sequence sorting systems with respect to their widespread usage and acceptance for sorting and processing various mail pieces, articles, units, or the like, resides in the fact that in order to ultimately arrange the original randomly-arranged destination-addressed mail pieces into the specifically desired delivery or serial address sequence or order, such conventional systems require that the randomly arranged destination-addressed mail pieces be conveyed through, or processed within, the systems a multiple number of times, that is, in accordance with terminology well-known in the art, the mail pieces must navigate multiple passes through the system. As a result of undergoing multiple-pass conveyance through the system, the mail pieces are pre-sorted into relatively large groups of mail pieces, the large groups of pre-sorted mail pieces are again subsequently sorted and processed through the system so as to further sort such mail pieces into relatively smaller groups, and the overall process is continued until predeterminedly sized manageable groups of mail are able to be effectively integrated into delivery-sequence collections or arrangements of the mail pieces to be delivered. It can therefore be appreciated that not only do such systems require a substantial period of time to fully sort and process a predetermined number of mail pieces, but in addition, the multi-pass conveyance or handling of the mail pieces through the system unfortunately provides additional opportunities for handling or sorting errors. Still yet further, and particularly in connection with the processing or sorting of flat mail pieces, flat mail pieces or articles are easily physically degraded when they are extensively handled. Consequently, the multiple passes of such flat mail pieces through conventional automated systems leads to the physical deterioration of flat mail articles which, again, renders such systems incapable of viably handling, sorting, and processing flat mail articles.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system which can viably handle both letter mail and flat mail, and wherein further, originally random pieces of both types of mail, presented or delivered into the system in a random letter/flat mixed input, can be conveyed, sorted, and placed into a desirable delivery-walk or serial address sequence as a result of being conveyed or processed by means of only a single pass through the system. In this manner, flat mail pieces will not be unduly degraded, and opportunities for mishandling of the mail pieces are limited.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system which can viably handle both letter mail and flat mail.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system which can viably handle both letter mail and flat mail and which effectively overcomes the various operational disadvantages and drawbacks characteristic of conventional PRIOR ART mail handling and sorting systems.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system wherein the system can viably handle both letter mail and flat mail, wherein the system can effectively overcome the various operational disadvantages and drawbacks characteristic of conventional PRIOR ART mail handling and sorting systems, and wherein originally random pieces of both types of mail, presented or delivered into the system in a random letter/flat mixed input, can be conveyed, sorted, and placed into a desirable delivery-walk or serial address sequence.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system wherein the system can viably handle both letter mail and flat mail, wherein the system can effectively overcome the various operational disadvantages and drawbacks characteristic of conventional PRIOR ART mail handling and sorting systems, and wherein originally random pieces of both types of mail, presented or delivered into the system in a random letter/flat mixed input, can be conveyed, sorted, and placed into a desirable delivery-walk or serial address sequence as a result of being conveyed or processed by means of only a single pass through the system.
The foregoing and other objectives are achieved in accordance with the teachings and principles of the present invention through the provision of a new and improved automatic postal mail transporting, handling, and sorting system which comprises an upstream letters/flats mixed input feeder, and a bar code reader/optical character reader (BCR/OCR) disposed immediately downstream from the letters/flats mixed input feeder. The bar code reader/optical character reader thus receives a mixed input of letters and flats from the upstream letters/flats mixed input feeder and reads the bar code or optical character information disposed upon the letters and flats, it being appreciated that such read information corresponds, for example, to the particular delivery addresses to which the letters and flats are to be respectively delivered. This read information is then automatically entered into the memory of the central processing unit (CPU) or other similar computer-control system which has been integrated into the overall automatic mail handling and sorting system, and in this manner, further conveyance and sorting of each individual piece of letter mail and flat mail is able to be precisely controlled so as to thereby determine, in turn, precisely where each letter and flat is in fact to be routed so as to facilitate the correct delivery of the letters and flats to their ultimate delivery addresses.
More particularly, downstream from the bar code reader/optical character reader, the letters and flats are transported or conveyed to a letters/flats transporter/sorter conveyor section which comprises a plurality of letters/flats sequencing modules within which the letters and flats are actually sorted into the delivery sequence format. Each sequencing module comprises a loading mechanism and a storage mechanism, and a sorting gate, formed within the letters/flats transporter/sorter conveyor, is operatively associated with each sequencing module so as to effectively divert a particular letter or flat piece of mail from the transporter/sorter conveyor into a particular sequencing module when the particular sorting gate is opened or moved to its diverter mode or position by means of the computer control system. The storage mechanism comprises a plurality of vertically spaced storage trays which are mounted upon a flexible drive conveyor and which sequentially correspond to the delivery address destinations, within a defined delivery area or region, such as, for example, a particular street, road, avenue, or the like, to which the letter and flat mail pieces are to be delivered by means of the postal carrier. The loading mechanism similarly comprises a plurality of vertically spaced loading trays which are also mounted upon a flexible drive conveyor and which are adapted to receive a single letter or flat piece of mail from the transporter/sorter conveyor as a result of the particular sequencing module gate diverting a particular letter or flat piece of mail from the transporter/sorter conveyor into the particular sequencing module. During a complete mail transporting, handling, and sorting operation or cycle, the storage conveyor is maintained stationary so as to receive individual letters or flats from the loading mechanism conveyor, whereas the loading mechanism conveyor is incrementally moved so as to receive individual letters and flats from the transporter/sorter conveyor and to deliver each received individual letter or flat to a designated one of the storage trays disposed upon the storage mechanism conveyor.
Accordingly, at the conclusion of an entire mail transporting, handling, and sorting operation or cycle, all of the letters and flats are deposited within the correct storage trays of the storage mechanism conveyor. It is to be remembered that the storage trays of the storage mechanism conveyor are disposed in delivery address sequence and therefore, in effect, all of the letters and flats have now been automatically sorted and deposited upon the storage mechanism conveyor in delivery address sequence. Accordingly, at the conclusion of the entire mail transporting, handling, and sorting operation or cycle, the storage mechanism conveyor may be actuated so as to discharge all letters and flats from each storage tray of the storage mechanism conveyor in a serial manner into, for example, a sequenced mail tub or storage container which is then conveyed downstream for use by the postal carrier in delivering the delivery address sequenced mail to the proper delivery address destinations.